24 Comments
Mar 5, 2022·edited Mar 5, 2022Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery

> The number of people who were pro-mask, pro-vax, pro-lockdown, and who are not currently pro-Ukraine in a geopolitical conflict that does not involve NATO, does not involve the USA, and has nothing to do with our national security, is effectively zero.

Probably. I doubt it through. There's gotta be a group of leftists who are isolationist due to USA-hatred.

And the later set is far wider, unless you're only looking at the USA. Approximately the whole public opinion in Poland is pro-ukraine, for example. Not the case for the other sets, not remotely.

Also, at least here, cancellation frenzy isn't related to leftism, almost at all. Because there isn't much leftism. I do not think it's the same phenomenon, at all.

I'm pro non-ridiculous ("boycott Coca-Cola" kind of stuff is dumb) sanctions tho. I do not think my support is caused by following the trends, given I was strongly against US leaving Afghanistan when almost everyone cheered for leaving.

I don't think your trolley problem is representing the situation correctly. If we're assuming "rational decisionmaking" for one side, we should do so for the other. _Why_ is bombing a convoy directly causing a thermonuclear war? Other side needs to act. Why would it be sensible for them?

Reasonable shelling point for MAD is a direct attack on a nuclear-capable nation. NATO streaming troops into Ukraine would not be that. Why are goalposts moved so remotely?

I've recently seen opinions that NATO shouldn't have expanded to _Poland_, which pissed me off pretty badly. Like, really? Why not move them even further - you know, _everything_ is worth it to prevent nuclear war. So if Putin wants to occupy USA - will you claim USA should surrender? Because otherwise, everyone dies, so...

I think this posture is cowardly, showing weakness despite superior capabilities.

Falling for pascal's mugging is bad.

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Mar 5, 2022Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery

Fads and group think are basic features of human psychology. Probably goes back to our tribal origins. It applies to everything from clothes to stock markets to witch burning to current affairs. Social media adds a new dimension, but there were similar rushes to judgement all throughout human history. The best antidote is to study history and have a time-tested set of moral beliefs. Then you can be less susceptible to the madness of the mob. Not a very optimistic opinion, but it keeps me from being surprised by mob-like behavior.

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Mar 5, 2022Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery

My chief concern is with the team running the show here in the USA. Egregores or otherwise, I have no faith in those who control the levers of power at this point in time. The only thing I'll give them is this: They're cunning enough to know that they need something dramatic to occur in order to avoid a significant loss of power in a few months, and they're evil enough to take action on that proposition. Dangerous combination.

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Mar 5, 2022Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery

The number of people calling for a no-fly zone is scary.

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Mar 4, 2022Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery

as bad as this current situation is, even when factoring the potential for how bad it can get, my deeper concern is what is the next thing around the corner. the momentum is definitely not in our favor.

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Mar 5, 2022·edited Mar 5, 2022Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery

I had an email from the MOOC organisation Coursera today. They had kicked a Russian university off their platform and wrote to virtue signal about it. What do you think the course was??

How the Brain Makes Decisions from HSE University

!!!

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Mar 5, 2022Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery

i'm starting to get some serious pre-WWI vibes from our egregore zeitgeist. what is it about new centuries, do they not really get going until everyone picks a side and decides that mass hysteria and mass murder are just the thing to get the blood flowing? (in both senses)

how many pre-WWI intellectuals, artists, journalists etc thought a nice, quick and easy war would provide glory and "meaning" and re-energize their societies with all that rich martial anger and energy? it seems that humans are so desperate to attach themselves to a historical cause (what Ernest Becker called an "immortality project") that they'd rather watch the world burn than face their own ultimate irrelevance.

or maybe this is just how new worlds are born, atop a mountain of skulls and bones from the previous world?

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Mar 5, 2022Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery

Perhaps egregores are why, to paraphrase Timothy Snyder, journalists are the heroes of the information age.

Shall we ask our newly minted champions what egregorian kryptonite might comprise?

wool in the ears? a solar flare? wifi scramblers?

I heard birds are real, btw, from a bird.

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Mar 5, 2022Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery

That’s worrisome

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What's an NPC? Non-player character? I've never been subject to the gaming egregore.

By the way, it's ‘its’ if it can't be replaced by “it is” or “it has“ and still mean the same thing. Yes I know “auto-correct” is a demon.

(‘Its’ is a determiner, like ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘my’, ‘your’, ‘our’, and ‘their’; conceivably it could be used in the same way as ‘mine’, ’yours’, ‘his’ [different context], ‘hers’, ‘ours’, and ‘theirs’ too.)

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This looks awesome as follow up, hopefully it will be recorded and published:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/swarms-egregores-63651110

excerpt:

MAR 10, 2022 AT 8:09 PM

Unlocked

Swarms, Egregores, and Autocults w/ John Robb, BJ Campbell, Patrick Ryan, and Jordan Hall

March 23rd @ 2:00 PM ET.

John Robb, BJ Campbell, Patrick Ryan, and Jordan Hall engage in a dialogos to make sense of a new emerging entity in the noosphere.

Recommended viewing/reading ...

Swarms: https://youtu.be/kIFfwXuRwG0

Egregores: https://hwfo.substack.com/p/memespace-egregores-and-nuclear-war

Autocults: https://youtu.be/630qu6u7JN4

RSVP: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0tceyvpzgrGdxwQET5Zt5f0dwmLbOx5oxE

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“The International Cat Federation banned cat breeds which originate from Russia from competitions, as if these pets were somehow secretly controlled by KGB microchips. An Italian university cancelled Dostoevsky, as if a dead guy was going to kill Ukrainians.”

The world has truly gone mad.

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Please bear in mind that your audience is not confined to America, and neither is Twitter's or the internet's in general.

Rant:

This applies to ALL Americans who post on the internet. Is it in America's and Americans' best interest not to give a flying F about anyone who isn't American, especially while expecting everyone who isn't American to give a giant F about America and Americans? Can you imagine how eNdEaRiNg this pervasive America-is-everything attitude is to non-Americans?

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